Understanding Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) as the Mode of Choice in Jakarta, Indonesia

Jakarta suffers from heavy traffic congestion, and this costs people not only their money but also their valuable time. Yet public transportation is still not enough to facilitate people’s daily mobility. In response to the Jakarta’s gridlock, the paratransit or intermediate public transport (IPT) plays a bigger role in helping the commuter’s activity and mobility. However, most of the existing IPT mode has poor quality and level of service. In 2014, GOJEK as a newcomer in IPT was launched and started to provide an alternative means of transport, and its presence has created a new system of providing service to its customers, and shortly it became popular and highly demanded by the people. Since the IPT operation is based on the user’s travel needs and their satisfaction with the level of service, the user may leave the IPT with poor service, and they prefer to switch to another IPT mode that is considered better and capable of accommodating their mobility. GOJEK operation and popularity has not only alarmed other IPT operators about how important the quality of service is, but it has also raised government’s awareness of how the regulation should adapt to and accommodate the new system of IPT operation without sacrificing the travel needs of the commuters. Hence, to bridge the government’s interest in formulating a new regulation and in helping IPT operators improve their service, this study will explore the four IPT modes’ level of service in Jakarta from the commuter’s perception. The attributes of the commuter’s perception of the level of service will be analyzed to find the most influential factor that determines their transportation mode decision. This study will reveal the important aspects of developing the transportation system policy by determining different weights of importance for the paratransit users in Jakarta. Finally, this research proposes several recommendations to help the government formulate the regulation that accommodates the operators’ and commuters’ interest.